Philip Pullman

Children’s writers from His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman to Julia Donaldson, creator of the Gruffalo, have joined forces to write a letter to The Times in protest at the departure of its children’s book reviewer Amanda Craig. The letter, which has 425 signatories, has been sent to The Times editor John Witherow in the hope of publication.

There’s not much point in reviewing some books. If children are Tom Gates obsessives, they’ll read Liz Pinchon’s latest, Tom Gates Genius Ideas (mostly) (Scholastic, £6.99) regardless of what you think of a schoolboy diary with not much text and lots of doodles.